business

There are many questions that should be addressed here. If the chief cost to the paper check is that issuing checks requires three state agencies, why not stream line that process? How much will the state pay vendors for cards, handling transactions, and so forth? Will these cards be without fees? And would the supposed savings stand if the state would simply allow the department of revenue to process refund checks on its own without involving any other state agency with this fairly simple and basic task?

The credit card companies (Visa, etc.) make money off the fees they charge the merchant so they provide this service to the state for free or in some cases they pay the client (in this case the state). This is why rebates, my Delta damaged baggage refund, temp agency payroll, unemployment, etc. is now done this way.

What happens to all those little plastic cards once the cash value is used up? Millions of them will end up in landfills all across the state. Maybe the can make them biodegradable?

Who gets a refund? We pay in on wages plus a pension earned in another state that did not have a state income tax. We live here, spend it here and also have to pay MN income tax on it. Other states exclude most pensions earned in a different state. Not greedy MN.

It wouldn't surprise me if there was some deal worked out where the State didn't have to release the cash until the card was used in the hope the cards were lost.

What sort of fees will I have to pay to use the card? Who pays the fee? Who collects the fee? The article says I can take the card to a bank and get cash from it. Is there a fee associated with that?

Last month robo cops, this month credit cards. Corporate America is slowly , but surely taking over our government.

I think Rocketstep has the real reason. "Breakage" is a lot higher with cards than with checks, only once did I fail to deposit a commercial rebate check (and now you just sign it and stick it in the ATM), but I have a bunch of $5.00-$10.00 rebate cards in my desk drawer and I haven't dragged any of them to the store.

"How much will the state pay vendors for cards, handling transactions, and so forth? Will these cards be without fees?" - Really good questions, no private entity should be profiting from the relationship between taxpayer and state through public mandate. That is more than unethical, it must be illegal and a misuse of office for those instigating the change. So long as the financial and ethical hurdles are surpassed, so long as I can take that card to my bank and deposit it without any fees or cost on my part, just like the current checks, I'm fine with it if it saves the state money.

Good idea consistent with other states. Just think all the $25 and up check cashing fees that people will not have to pay and the loan anticipations fees they mention in the article.